I spent two weeks without WhatsApp. Not a digital detox. Life made the decision for me. As a business owner, consultant, investor, and someone with hundreds of friends all over the world… I was uncomfortable. When I finally opened it, I had around 2,600 unread messages. Honestly, I was surprised there were so few. But the bigger surprise? Nothing terrible had happened. A humbling discovery. Apparently, the universe had continued operating without my blue ticks. Things stayed under control....
about 23 hours ago • 1 min read
An infrastructure fund manager has three problems. First, raise the capital. Not easy. Second, deploy the capital. Also not easy. Because after telling LPs you have access to a wonderful infrastructure pipeline, eventually you need to buy something. Small detail. And third… Invest the capital in something that does not behave like what the fund promised to invest in. That is where careers become interesting. It’s not only about losing money. It’s walking into the Investment Committee and...
2 days ago • 2 min read
Auckland’s City Rail Link is finally open. Yes. Finally. After years of works. Road cones. Traffic disruption. Political fights. Budget headlines. People explaining why it should have been cheaper. People explaining why it should never have been built. People explaining why Auckland is not London, Madrid, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Paris or any other city with trains. And of course… People explaining everything after the project is finished. My favourite type of infrastructure expert. But here...
3 days ago • 3 min read
Good morning, Silicon Valley has discovered project finance. Congratulations. Only took them a few trillion dollars. Clever guys… For years, the story was simple. AI will change everything. Data centres will be built everywhere. Power will somehow appear. Permits will somehow be granted. Communities will somehow be happy. Debt markets will somehow fund it. And if something goes wrong, someone will just raise another round. Beautiful. I love start-ups… And business plans written by people who...
4 days ago • 2 min read
Good morning, Very boring news from the Philippines. No megaproject render. No minister standing in front of a bridge that does not exist. No announcement of a new $5 billion airport, railway, tunnel, hospital, spaceport, floating city, or “transformational infrastructure corridor unlocking generational growth.” Just this: The Philippines PPP Center continues to train public agencies, local governments and private proponents on how to prepare, evaluate and manage PPPs and unsolicited...
5 days ago • 2 min read
I’m still recovering from the images of the invasion of Ceuta. For those who don’t know, Morocco sent. through action or inaction, around 80,000 people into Ceuta, a Spanish city in North Africa. More than 140 people died. A city doubled its population in a matter of hours. Spanish intelligence warned the police, the government, and Morocco. Some were celebrating some King holidays. Others were simply on holidays… Faced with what was coming, the police decided to let people through rather...
6 days ago • 1 min read
You know what I like saying. The most expensive piece of infrastructure is not a tunnel. It is not a bridge. It is the Send button. Welcome to Northern Ireland. Project Omega. A 25-year PFI plant for wastewater and sludge treatment. The SPV, Glen Water, put a £4.4 million claim. The issue? Failures by Northern Ireland Water to meet its obligations for an existing incinerator. Typical… the client not meeting expectations… And this is what everything stats to be interesting. There had been...
8 days ago • 1 min read
There is a strange phenomenon in big projects. The bigger the project becomes… …the smaller your world gets. Egos kill more projects than bored consultants. I’ve seen it. Normally, it goes like that… You spend your morning discussing clause 38.4. Lunch reviewing the debt sizing. And your afternoon arguing whether a risk should be red… …or dark orange. … and what would be the right color after mitigation… Meanwhile: Interest rates move. A contractor issues a profit warning. A Government...
9 days ago • 1 min read
You arrive to the room like a child with new shoes. First project meeting. Excited. Then a guy with not much hair says… “The SPV will pass the risk down through back-to-back contracts, subject to equivalent project relief and the lenders’ step-in rights.” You nod. Of course you nod. You have a degree. Twenty years of experience. And a LinkedIn profile that says “strategic leader.” You cannot possibly ask what the hell that means. So you write “back-to-back” in your notebook. Twice. Must be...
10 days ago • 1 min read
